Early Season training

[devolikewhoa83]

Coach Lynda,

What do you like to do when restarting training after the off-season? I just spent one full month (November) just mountain biking for fun and occasional KOM chasing with no structure, then a full month of jogging, some mountain biking, weight lifting and working on mobility; active but no serious training.

Now I’ve got a race calendar plan, a new bike (Cannondale Scalpel SE, an absolute rocket ship) and I am rip-roaring ready to get back at it.

So i’m not in terrible shape but also probably not quite ready for a 20 min test and slamming intervals.

What do you recommend to do to ease back in? Do you just sort of start riding, go by RPE, increase volume and frequency? Any rough guidelines of when to know you’re ready to dive into structured training / slamming some intervals?

When I’m ready to dive back in, I’ve got your base plan and 100 miler plan lined up.

Pumped to get back at it. Thanks!

[Lynda]

Hi devolikewhoa83,

Congrats on the sweet new bike!

The Base plan is designed to progressivly increase volume and intensity will ease you back in. The test is an important part of getting your training intensity correct. Your power levels will be lower after a season break and restarting with accurate lower power levels is an important part of easing back in and building back up to peak performance. None of the training in week 1 of the Base plan should “slam” you if you have your power levels set correctly.

Coach Lynda

[devolikewhoa83]

Thanks! Interested to get your views on this. I sometimes have tried free-handing a week or so of tempo, stacking as many back to back days as i can do, then backing off, then repeating, and found that gave a good boost without requiring too much recovery time, THEN start hitting the plans.

But this time i will follow your suggestion. Just pumped to get back at it.

I’ve got a local XC and endurance MTB series (25, 30 and 50 or 60 mile distances) that I hope happens this year, plus the High Cascades 100 in July. I don’t think that my training needs to change much to get a good result, but my eating definitely does.

[Lynda]

To improve your nutrition I highly recommend the Fuel Right Race Light eBook from LW Coaching partner Apex Nutrition to improve your performance. This book is a complete nutrition plan for endurance athletes. Author, Kelli Jennings, RD teaches you to do exactly what the title claims. We all know there is no benefit to being race-light if you are bonked all the time. Kelli guides you through proper fueling for mountain bike training and events so you can achieve that trim and fit combo that feels so good.

Coach Lynda

[devolikewhoa83]

Thanks! I’ll check it out.

The biggest issue i have is remembering to eat on the bike. Like just cruising along at the high end of z2 / low end of tempo, you can go for a while but if you do the math, calorie demands are huge. I started paying attention to it at the end of last season and realized i was ending every ride in a huge deficit. I started eating more and my performance skyrocketed and i felt SO much better the next day. But even with focused attention on it, i still find it hard to keep up. It’s almost like on some rides you need to eat at every available opportunity, which feels absurd.

[Author]

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